G-20 summit in South Africa adopts declaration despite US boycott, opposition

Summary

• G-20 leaders in South Africa adopted a declaration addressing climate change and global challenges, despite objections from the US and Argentina.
• The declaration stresses climate change seriousness, renewable energy targets, and debt relief for poor countries, opposed by the Trump administration.
• South Africa rejected US offer to send a junior official for the G-20 handover, citing protocol breach, amid geopolitical tensions and disagreements.

JOHANNESBURG - A Group of 20 (G-20) leaders’ summit in South Africa adopted a declaration addressing the climate crisis and other global challenges on Nov 22 over US objections, prompting the White House to accuse South Africa of weaponising its leadership of the group in 2025.

The declaration, which was drafted without input from the United States, “can’t be renegotiated,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson told reporters, reflecting strains between Pretoria and the Trump administration over the event.

“We had the entire year of working towards this adoption and the past week has been quite intense,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.

Hours later, the White House said Ramaphosa was “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G-20 presidency” after initially saying he would pass the gavel to ‘an empty chair’.”

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G-20 Leaders Declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G-20 presidency to undermine the G-20’s founding principles,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.

Mr Trump looks forward to “restoring legitimacy” to the group in 2026, when the US holds the rotating presidency.

Mr Ramaphosa, host of this weekend’s gathering of G-20 leaders in Johannesburg, had earlier said there was “overwhelming consensus” for a summit declaration.

But, at the last minute, Argentina, whose far-right President Javier Milei is a close ally of US President Donald Trump, quit the negotiations right before the envoys were about to adopt the draft text, South African officials said.

“Argentina, although it cannot endorse the declaration... remains fully committed to the spirit of cooperation that has defined the G-20 since its conception,” its foreign minister, Mr Pablo Quirno, said at the summit.

Mr Ramaphosa noted this, but went ahead with it anyway.

In explanation, Mr Quirno said Argentina was concerned about how the document referred to geopolitical issues.

“Specifically, it addresses the longstanding Middle East conflict in a manner that fails to capture its full complexity,” he said.

The document mentions the conflict once, saying members agree to work for a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in... the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Climate change

Envoys from the G-20 - which brings together the world’s major economies - drew up a draft leaders’ declaration on Nov 21 without US involvement, four sources familiar with the matter said.

“It is a longstanding G-20 tradition to issue only consensus deliverables, and it is shameful that the South African government is now trying to depart from this standard practice,” a senior Trump administration official said on Nov 21.

The declaration used the kind of language long disliked by the US administration: stressing the seriousness of climate change and the need to better adapt to it, praising ambitious targets to boost renewable energy and noting the punishing levels of debt service suffered by poor countries.

The mention of climate change was a snub to Mr Trump, who doubts the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activities.

US officials had indicated they would oppose any reference to it in the declaration.

In opening remarks to the summit, Mr Ramaphosa said: “We should not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature and the impact of the first African G-20 presidency”.

His bold tone was a striking contrast to his subdued decorum during his visit to the White House in May, in which he endured Mr Trump repeating a false claim
that there was a genocide of white farmers in South Africa, brushing aside Mr Ramaphosa’s efforts to correct his facts.

Mr Trump said US officials would not attend the summit because of allegations, widely discredited, that the host country’s black majority government persecutes its white minority.

Trump rejects agenda

The summit came at a time of heightened tensions between world powers over Russia’s war in Ukraine and fraught climate negotiations at the COP30 in Brazil.

“While the G-20 diversity sometimes presents challenges, it also underscores the importance of finding common ground,” Japan Cabinet Public Affairs Secretary Maki Kobayashi told Reuters.

Commenting on Argentina’s absence from the final envoy meeting to agree on the text, Mr Magwenya said: “Argentina (had) been participating quite meaningfully... in all the deliberations,” then never showed up to endorse the declaration on Nov 21.

He added: “We have what we call sufficient consensus.”

The US president had also rejected the host nation’s agenda of promoting solidarity and helping developing nations adapt to weather disasters, transition to clean energy and cut their excessive debt costs.

“This G-20 is not about the US”, South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told public broadcaster SABC. “We are all equal members of the G-20. What it means is that we need to take a decision. Those of us who are here have decided this is where the world must go.”

But in a sign of the many geopolitical fissures underlying the agreed text, EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen warned in a speech about the “the weaponisation of dependencies” which she said “only creates losers”.

This was an apparent veiled reference to China’s export curbs on rare earths
vital for the world’s energy transition, as well as defence and digital technology.

The United States will host the G-20 in 2026 and Mr Ramaphosa said he would have to hand over the rotating presidency to an “empty chair”.

China’s Premier Li Qiang called for unity amongst the G-20 during a speech at the summit on Nov 22, saying that differences in interests among parties and shortcomings in global cooperation are key obstacles to international unity.

“The G20 should face up to these problems, explore solutions and promote a return to the right track of unity and cooperation,” he said in a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.

The South African presidency on Nov 22 reiterated its rejection of a US offer to send the US charge d’affaires for the G-20 handover.

“The president will not hand over to a junior embassy official the presidency of the G-20. It’s a breach of protocol that is not going to be accommodated,” Mr Magwenya said.

Mr Lamola later said that South Africa would assign a diplomat of the same rank as a charge d’affaires to hand over the G-20 presidency at the foreign affairs department. REUTERS